Lifedrawing! Oh my!

So I've finally gotten around to compiling some photos of my many, many life drawings into easy to digest thingies. I'm just going to say this right off the bat: figure drawing is not my strongest area. All of these were from this past year of animation.

So we've got some 30 seconds and 1 minute's...



3 minutes.. (oh dear, why are there so many three's?)



5 minutes:



And finally some random things I did in the life drawing breaks. Or when I was supposed to be life drawing. Bwahaha.

Well, darn.

I promise that this tiny corner of the backside of the internet will not become another online diary of a backlog of emotional drama and far too many words that are not a) funny, b) interesting or c) full of pictures of delicious food. It's still just a log for animation/art type things as I learn how to not make peoples heads explode with horribleness whenever I try to draw something that is not a horse or a dinosaur. But this little bit of non-animation school and/or art related goop does impact said animation school/art related goop. So there.

Basically, I've not been doing so hot. Nothing terribly interesting, and nothing life threatening or even terrible life changing in any major, physical, permanent way. But still distressing and alarming to me because, frankly, it's happening to me. Minor social and general anxiety suddenly becoming unbearable and making even the process of going outside my room terrifying, a mild tendency to pluck hairs becoming a full fledged case of trillotrichomania resulting in me missing most of the hair of the top of my head (I seriously look like friar tuck. I've suddenly developed a fondness for hats), depression that suddenly drops leaving me disinterested in anything I previously enjoyed and unable to feel much of anything intermitted with bouts of panic when I do suddenly feel (insert a #feelings joke here). It's like all the issues that have been riding on my back ever since high school, in varying degrees, have all come crashing down harder than ever before. It's happened before, in smaller ways, but not in the middle of a program that I cared so deeply about, and wanted to continue, and not after I had felt I was improving so much. It blindsided me not once but twice during this past year of animation goodness, and I feel a fool for not being able to stop it, and for being to embarrassed and in denial to ask for help. And on top of it all there have been some non-mental health issues as well, though I'd rather not get into those. 

Oh no, I've gotten too verbose and moody. Long start shot, I've been feeling crap, and I'm leaving the animation program for a short time to get things sorted out. I do know that, beyond a doubt, I wish to return to this program, in this school, above all else, and will do anything it takes to keep that door open. I always figured I would go into fine arts as a little kid, or maybe illustration, but after experiencing animation I can say there is nothing else I would rather do. And though I do have to ship my bum back home for a bit, I'm still going to be working on things, drawing, painting, and maybe even animating, and posting the junk here. And, hopefully sooner rather than later, I'll be back to Sheridan to become awesome. 

Oh lawd, that was too many words. Here's a video of some animation nonsense I did in the past couple months. 

Oh hey look, animals!

Last week all us animation kiddies went on a nice little field trip to the Toronto zoo to draw some nice little animals. Saw lots of poop. And otters having sexy times. And armies of strollers. And a million Canadian Geese.

I'm still too sketchy. Bah.

Adventures in Photoshop.

I'm still very, very new at doing anything digitally, but I am practicing every now and again. I'm still a complete noobasaurus tough, and I feel like I might as well be beating my computer with a sardine wearing a blindfold. Especially when I spy on the sort of stuff my classmates can do with a computer and tablet.

But, uh, here's my latest attempt at digital painting.

Yeah... Here it is with me trying to figure out textures all over it:

 I'm still very iffy about the whole thing. But I think this would be the first thing I've done entirely digitally, no scanned in sketch or linear or nothing. So.. woo?

Dragosaur! Or Dinogron. Dragonsaurus?

Just a couple of things today. Sketchbook things.

Mmmm, sketchy.

Over the last couple weeks I've been slowing working away on a doodle on my sketchbook cover. Got a lot of dots in it. A lot of dots. Dear me. And a very tiny bit of photoshop editry, because there is only so much cardboard a persona can look at at one time.

Pffft. At at.
And a few sketches I threw together all in one lump. You know, the usual. A couple moose, a slug cat... This really is supposed to be a little bit bigger, but sadly it got shrunk in the wash.



I did have a short couple seconds of animation from last semester. Been sitting on my computer for ages. It's still not uploading to youtube.

God damn it youtube. The second I figure you out you have to change.

Hands and Animals and Feet, oh my.

It's been a little while since my last post, hasn't it? Oh my, yes it has. My apologies to the few of you who were asking me when I was going to update. This will be a gigantic post with many pictures, so there you go!

Some of my very own hands and feet, for a life drawing assignment. I had lots of fun getting cramps in all my phalanges, but sadly some of the perspective is warped on a few of these.




Another life drawing assignment, this time from the Royal Winter Fair. Many gestures and a few studies of the many animals on display or in competition. Turns out that cows, even the very plump ones, have a delightful bone structure and are lovely to draw. Who knew?



A sheet of expressions for character design. I still have quite a bit of trouble with humans, as you can probably tell. I do quite like this lady (she's batshit, you see), and I do quite like a couple of these expressions. However, I didn't get the continuity that I would like to see. Some of the later ones feel like I was drawing her sister instead of her.


A layout assignment, using the same small dino from the last post. Poor guy. Birds are jerks.





Here are a pair of paintings from way back at the beginning of the semester. More or less my first attempts at painting with gauche, the medium of choice for our painting class.



Another painting, this time quick little sketches of textures.



And finally, my most recent painting (from earlier this week). I didn't spend as much time on this as I would have liked, and there are many parts I would like to refine. I do like how the metal midsection of the gas lamp turned out.